College may face payback of funds

By Bob Belcher

July 19, 2008 09:06 pm

— Dr. Richard Sanchez called it “the major issue” Navarro College will face in the coming year.
Enough of an “issue” that Sanchez has identified $800,000 in the college’s proposed budget to allow for a possible repayment of some funding from a special appropriation by the Texas Legislature for Navarro’s Midlothian campus.
At issue is an investigation by the State Auditor’s Office into Navarro College’s reporting of contact hours at its Midlothian Center, and the findings that could result in the college having to reimburse the state for contact hours paid due to what a state official termed a “clerical error.”
Susan Brown, assistant commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, informed college officials in a phone call in June and in a letter last week, that some of the hours for Internet-based instruction reported through its Midlothian campus did not qualify for funding the college received as part of a $2.7 million special appropriation granted by the state legislature for the new campus.
The exact financial impact on the college, if any, remains unclear. However, the college has made plans in its upcoming budget to deal with a possible return of funds to the state.
“I have identified a source in the budget that we can use to recover if necessary,” Sanchez said Thursday.
He declined to identify where in the budget the money would come from, but said it was “about $800,000.”
“That might be close to it, depending on how the hours that would be eligible based on (the Coordinating Board’s) definition. I have no idea, I’m just simply saying that that money is available there,” he said.
“I don’t know how much may be required, but I think ($800,000) would be a fairly good beginning. I have no idea ... what it may represent.”
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s a clerical error,” Brown told the Daily Sun in a telephone interview. “We’ve sent information back to the college stating … what needs to be corrected.”
In the letter addressed to Dr. Richard Sanchez, college district president, Brown said “the method of selecting the hours eligible for new campus funding has been used for other biennium’s on the interpretation that when the rider says ‘to fund contact hours generated from a new campus’ that means that they are taught at the campus. In our opinion the courses taught by Internet, videotape or live broadcast would not qualify based on this interpretation.”
Navarro College’s report for the Midlothian campus for the Spring 2006 semester included all Internet-based instruction the college offered at all of its campuses. Sanchez said that was because oversight of the Internet-based instruction was the responsibility of Dr. Cubie Ward, who moved to the Midlothian campus.
“We assigned all the Internet hours to Midlothian as a means to justify the special appropriation,” Sanchez said. He said he told Brown of his plans for assigning the hours to Midlothian, and that it met with her approval.
“They can report them from anywhere they want to,” Brown said, but because of the clerical error, the college was actually funded twice for the hours reported in error – through both the Corsicana campus and from the special appropriation for the Midlothian campus.
Sanchez pointed to the special appropriation as justification for the payment the college received for Midlothian.
“It’s not that the college was funded twice,” Sanchez said. “This was a special appropriation given to the college by the legislature. The measure they used was contact hours at Midlothian.
“I suspect that one could say ‘yes, you were so to speak paid twice,’ but this was a special appropriation for Navarro College to help get the new campus off the ground. Navarro College was not the only institution that received a special appropriation during that biennium,” Sanchez said.
The investigation into the reporting of contact hours for Internet-based instruction in 2006 at the Midlothian Center was prompted by a complaint, according to State Auditor John Keel. The report submitted to the Higher Education Coordinating Board said the investigation found no evidence of any wrong doing by the college.
“The college needs to work out this issue of contact hours with the Coordinating Board,” Keel said. “There is an issue regarding (Midlothian) ... they need to work out the appropriate and proper contact hours and reporting requirements with the Higher Education Coordinating Board.”
Keel’s report said the Midlothian campus taught 75 courses to a student population of 223 in the spring 2006 semester, as well as students from Midlothian High School who took “dual credit” courses through Midlothian. Those classes accounted for 49,968 contact hours. A “contact hour” is a unit of measure by which state funding is determined.
The State Auditor’s investigation said the college’s application for branch campus status for the Midlothian campus reported 221 courses were taught in spring 2006 through Midlothian, for a total of 222,784 contact hours. That number includes 146 Internet courses reported through the Midlothian campus, plus the 75 courses taken by students who physically attended the Midlothian campus.
“Although the distance learning classes were taught by Navarro College, according to the Board, these classes should have been reported by the main campus of Navarro College located in Corsicana, and not the Midlothian educational center,” Keel’s report said.
Sanchez said State Rep. Jim Pitts, who represents Ellis County, will be meeting with the commissioner of the Higher Education Coordinating Board Tuesday to further discuss the matter.
“I will wait and see what the outcome of that meeting is before I take any further action,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said the college has changed its reporting methods for Internet-based instruction, and at the college board’s Thursday meeting announced the appointment of an online instruction coordinator at its Corsicana campus. He said the decision to change the reporting procedures for the Internet classes had nothing to do with the auditor’s investigation, and had been in the planning stages prior to the investigation.
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Bob Belcher may be reached by e-mail at belcher@corsicanadailysun.com.

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